Refuge
by crazypandagirl
Summary: Hannibal had a family, before he met Danica. But he never knew his five-year-old sister survived the fire that night. Blade and Whistler saved her from the burning house while out hunting, and couldn't let her go, knowing she would be a target to the vampires. Whistler finds a new chance at a family, and refuses to let it go without setting off the next war with the vampires...
1. Chapter 1

Whistler POV

A burning house on the other side of the park catches my eye, as Blade finishes off the last vampire. I even get a little worried hearing a high pitched screaming a moment later. Sounds like a like… no…

"Is that a child?" Blade asks, just as a young man yells, car doors slamming shut and tires squealing as the cars they're stuck on race away.

"Yeah, kid!" I confirm, making my way through the park, him breezing past me and breaking down the front door of the house. I look around, and find a woman's bloody corpse lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from puncture wounds on her neck. A shrill scream, this one of pain, echoes with a crack, before a smash, probably from Blade breaking down another door inside, follows quietly.

He comes out carrying a small child wrapped in what I can see is a butterfly-printed blanket, tucked tightly against his chest. "Whistler!" he growls, running up to me. "Grabbed what I could, but only found the girl still alive."

I take the child from him as he holds her out, finding her shaking herself to bits, tears falling from stormy blue eyes. I notice she's holding her pale hand tightly against her chest, red and slightly blistered. "Let me see your hand," I order her as I set her on the sidewalk across the street from her burning home.

She swallows tightly, and offers me her hand slowly, her face crumpling up in pain. "It burn me," she whispers, coughing a little. She probably breathed in a lot of smoke before Blade got to her, which might be an issue, and has a bit of ash on her overheated, pale face.

I inspect the small hand, and find there's hardly any damage. She must have tried to grab a doorknob, and let go fast enough to just be lightly burnt. "Your hand'll sting for a while, but you'll be fine, kid."

She nods, and turns to look back at the house, only to have Blade block her, sparing her the sight of watching her home burn down. "It's gone, kid," he murmurs softly, oddly enough reaching out a hand to rest on her shoulder, comforting her. Even if he is a bit rough around the edges in his way of doing it, before he pulls her close again, hugging her as she slowly calms down in his arms, before somehow falling asleep.

I look at him carefully. "She looks like that woman on the curb," I point out a little sadly, remembering when I lost my family.

"There was a man in the house, bitten too. They probably locked her door, vampires attacked him as well. She looks like him too," he mutters in return, looking down slightly.

Must be thinking about being an orphan himself. Like I'm thinking of my family. "Let's get out of here," I mutter as sirens fill the air, that damn firetruck horn filling the air and waking up the entire block.

We get through the park just as the first responders get there, and drive away as they start fighting the flames eating the house.


	2. Chapter 2

Seven Years Later

Kelly POV

I look across the workbench, where I'm drawing out a new knife pattern, with a list of requirements that Blade has for all his vampire-hunting weapons, to Papa Whistler. He's frowning at something in the newspaper, and I can only see that the headline says something about a CEO gone missing. Strange.

Blade's black car pulls into the warehouse carefully as the sun rises, and I can see a woman slumped in the backseat, blood on her neck… from two punctures. I already know what Blade wants to do, and go to where we keep the garlic solutions, grabbing a syringe on my way there. I manage to find the strongest concentration of the garlic Papa had me cook up last week, which I usually put into a polish for the sharper weapons, or fill the hollow-points with when we're short on silver nitrate.

"She's been bitten?!" Papa rages, throwing down the newspaper. "Why in the hell did you bring her back here?!"

"She can be treated. Only bitten less than two hours ago, we can still do something," Blade informs him calmly, before I can almost feel his eyes on my back. "Got the garlic yet, Kelly?"

"Yup!" I call, filling the syringe as I walk back. "How strong a dose?" I ask, walking slowly to watch how much garlic I draw out. He stays quiet, and I wince. "Half the syringe then," I mutter, walking faster as I remove the needle from the vial.

He takes it quickly from me, before gesturing to my abandoned MP3 by my sketchbook. "This may not be pleasant to listen to," he murmurs.

I glance at the shivering woman on the table, her light brown skin covered in sweat as the venom races through her veins. I can only imagine how painful it has to be for her. I then really, really hope she makes it, seeing that she's a doctor, and has to have been dragged into it while on duty, treating innocents. "I'll be in my room," I mutter, grabbing the notebooks I've been using to design his new weapons, and ones waiting for his approval. "Come and look at these after?" I ask hopefully.

He grants me a rare half smile. "I'll be there shortly."

I run up the stairs as fast as I can, pressing the play button on the cheap device quickly so I don't have to listen to what I know will be a very painful process happening downstairs. I step into my room, closing the door and sighing, before moving to flop onto my bed, books in hand. I pull out my pencil, and begin sketching again, now adding etchings that could hold dried garlic concentrate, and maybe silver dust if Blade chooses.

I don't know how long I sketch for, but the next thing I know, someone is shaking my shoulder. I blink my eyes open, and realize I must have nodded off at some point while I was drawing. I yank out the earbuds to hear the resident Daywalker chuckling as I sit up. I grumble at him for it, rubbing my eyes slightly.

"Have a nice nap there, kid?" he asks with smirk.

I just give him a look as I grab the open sketchbook next to him. "Didn't even realize I nodded off. I didn't really get much sleep last night," I admit to him. I flip through the pages of drawings of weapons and their respective notes. "I remember you glaring at your knife last week, and I thought that you might want to think of trying to replace it soon. Maybe this one," I explain, finding the page I want.

The blade is slightly curved, like the boomerang-knife he loves throwing around, but more like a mini-samurai sword. The handle is different though, with a hand-guard that turns into something like brass-knuckles, but made out of silver and can be lined with silver nitrate or garlic. I even thought of how he likes giving the vampires little surprises, so I wrote out a note to keep the handle hollow for future additions, like cartridges that can be used to coat the blade in a solution toxic to vampires, or even into a double ended weapon.

He whistles at the notes and the design. "How long you been working on this one for?" he asks, taking off his sunglasses.

I shrug. "Thought of it a couple months ago and wrote out the notes for it, but I didn't start drawing it until a couple weeks ago." I look down at the page he continues to inspect. "Do you like it, Blade?"

He reaches over to ruffle my hair. "I think I'll take it up with Whistler. I'm sure he'll get the things together for it."

I smile brightly, before I take in the silence from downstairs. "Is she still here?"

"Yeah. The garlic worked, as far as we can tell," he informs me, but he's still frowning. "Her name is Karen Jensen, a doctor. She was looking at Quinn's crispy body when she and a coworker were attacked. She was the only one with a chance to survive, and still be of use."

"Cool. When can I meet her?"

"After you get back downstairs. She's going to wake up sometime soon," he informs me, getting up and quickly moving to the door. "It's already noon."

I sigh as I get up, tucking the pencil into the book to mark my page before I stretch, standing to leave right on his heels. "Well, so long as she doesn't try to drain me, I think I'll offer her lunch too."

"What about me, Twinkle Toes?!" Papa yells up at me.

I snicker lightly. "Didn't realize you liked my cookin', Papa!" I yell back.

"Get down here Blade, take a run out to the shop," he orders my favorite Daywalker, before giving me a hard stare. "You waitin' on a formal invitation? Hurry up!"

I just shake my head and slide down the railing down to the floor, running off to the small oven we rigged to work well enough. "What you wanna eat?"

"Pasta!" he shouts as he starts welding something again.

Blade hops back into his car as I go into the trunk for the box of pasta and other ingredients. "Tomato or alfredo?"

"Tomato!" he shouts, before coughing as he lights another cigarette.

I pick up the bunch of tomatoes still on the vine, peppers, garlic, beef, basil, and grab one of our only two kitchen knives, one of their presents to me for Christmas three years ago when I discovered how much I love cooking. I pull the cutting board out of the oven, and set to work, dicing up the tomatoes and peppers in no time, heating up a small pot of water for the noodles.

I lose track of time as I stir the ingredients together, making the spaghetti sauce, and drain the pasta and cool it with fresh water. When I look up at a clock, I see that Blade is already back, wincing at the after-effects of the serum. A gasp makes me turn around, and I see the woman standing in the doorway to Papa's room, staring down at us.

I wave at her. "Come on, food's almost done," I call, and the guys look upstairs at her in surprise.

She walks down slowly, making her way to me carefully. "Who are you people? Where am I?"

I roll my eyes at her. "One thing at a time. Pass me those plates please?" I ask, giving the sauce another stir as I turn off the heat.

She picks up the plates and offers them to me carefully one at a time, and only notices then that there are four plates. "Have you been watching me?" she asks suspiciously.

I turn to look at her with a glare. "No, but if you don't want anything to eat then that's fine with me."

She clams up and offers me the last plate, taking the three full plates to the small table, laying them out and taking a seat as Blade and Papa Whistler join her.

"So, how are you feeling?" Papa asks her after a little while of eating in silence.

He grip tightens on her fork. "Tired, confused," she admits. "What happened?"

"An acquaintance of ours I came to finish off, but he got away again," Blade answers stiffly. "He's a vampire I've been after for a _long_ time now."

"Vampires?" she asks, looking at us like we're crazy.

I shift a little, remembering flashes of the fire. "Vampires killed my parents and made my brother a familiar when I was little, and set the house on fire when they couldn't find me inside. Papa and Blade saved me."

She stares at me, eyes softening. "I'm sorry," she offers quietly.

* * *

So, I know it's been forever since I last looked at this, so... sorry about that.

I want to keep this similar to the original story, so I'm not gonna pick the story apart with every chapter. I'm just altering a few things here and there, but the deviation won't really show until the end of the first movie, and won't be too much different throughout the second except a few details. The third movie is when Kelly is going to shine, minor spoiler alert.

So, basically, there are gonna be a bunch of random time skips. Please don't complain if you haven't watched the movies, because my theory on fanfiction is that it shouldn't always change the entire story, and should keep some of the original plot intact until all of the little pieces have added up enough to change the ending.

No idea if that made any sense, but it made a lot of sense in my head.

I don't own the Blade Trilogy


	3. Chapter 3

Kelly POV

I pick up the pan filled with fresh garlic and silver nitrate mace, carrying it over to the bucket to fill the canister Papa holds in a set of tongs. He puts in the funnel and I slowly pour in the solution. "Your hand is getting steadier kid," he praises softly, holding in a cough.

"It has to Papa, otherwise I won't be able to help," I mumble, focused on the pouring. I stop when there's half an inch left to allow for the nozzle to fit without it overflowing, letting him put it on the table so he can cough and take a swig of Jim Beam straight from the bottle. I finish putting it together, testing it to fill the pipe and make sure it works properly without clogging it up.

"What is that?" Karen asks from behind, and I glance over my shoulder to find Papa glaring at her.

I pick it up and shake the mace before handing it to her. "Fresh vampire mace," I inform her easily. "You know about them now, and you need to be able to protect yourself if one of them comes to silence you."

"They'd do that?" she asks, tentatively accepting it.

I nod easily, turning to pick up the next canister. "They'll know because Quinn knows he didn't kill you, and they pay a lot of people to know about who lives and who dies." I make sure I don't look at her again. "Do yourself a favor and get out of the city. The clans don't usually talk to one another, so you'll be safer if you're in another city. It means you'll be in someone else's territory, and they don't like it when they have intruders arriving for official business like this."

"How do I get out so fast? I don't even own a car," she asks Papa.

"That's not our problem," he informs her easily, taking the tongs and moving back to the bucket. "But the trains work, they hate rail travel. You can use the ATM safely to get cash for a ticket, but you gotta be quick." He pulls out a cigarette and lights it up. "Do yourself a favor Karen. Buy yourself a gun. If you start getting thirsty and nothing helps, and develop a sensitivity for sunlight… do yourself a favor, and use it on yourself. It's better than the alternative."

I pick up the pan and fill the second canister as Blade pulls Karen away to his car. "Do you think she'll work for bait?" I ask quietly once I hear tires squealing against the concrete.

"Oh yeah, you know how Frost works. He'll have a cop familiar try taking her out by four at her place," he comments easily. "He's probably already got someone watching her place, maybe a familiar or two dressed up as normal people. Maybe got Mercury on it."

"I hate her," I grumble, pouring the last of the mace into the can.

"I know you do, after last time," he responds softly, taking the warm can and capping it himself to test it. "Blade said you had a replacement plan for his knife."

I nod quickly. "It's got a few features for additions in the future in the hilt if you can figure it out, he liked those."

"Go fetch it, I'll take a look at it. And bring that etching solution."

* * *

Papa pushes me towards my room. "Go clean up, then go to bed Kelly, I'm going out to join Blade and maybe Karen. They've got something big on Frost this time."

I nod and cover a yawn as I stumble away to the bathroom for a shower. "Have fun Papa," I call back, going to grab my pajamas and towel.

The water is cold when I set it going, but I'm so used to it that I don't even notice or care. We've got water for a scrub, and if I want hot water I can go heat it and hope it lasts long enough for a shower or until after I'm done to warm up after getting rid of the soap. That's the only problem with living in abandoned warehouses, but all we really need is space and functioning plumbing. The rest doesn't matter.

* * *

I walk downstairs to find Karen and Papa pulling a bunch of machines and boxes from the back of a truck. "What's going on Papa?" I ask, confused that Karen is still even here.

He looks down at me with a frown. "The good doctor here needed some of her fancy tools. She's a hematologist, she might be able to help find a cure for Blade."

I perk up at that. "Really?"

Karen hums as she takes the next box from him, passing it to me when I hold out my arms for the clearly light box. "There's glass in there, she informs me, taking the next box that looks a lot heavier. "I've looked at a sample of Quinn's blood, when I was at the hospital before he bit me. It's biconvex, which isn't possible for a healthy human. I might be able to work with that and find a cure for myself, then adapt it into a cure for Blade if I've got these tools and time to study his blood."

"Cool," I comment, wide-eyed as I set down the box.

She opens it to pull out a jar of a blue solution. "Can you empty this box and set up the microscope for me Kelly?" she asks hopefully.

I nod. "I can do that. Could you teach me about what you're doing?"

She pauses, looking at me in amazement as Papa chuckles. "She's a smart kid, learns quick and doesn't miss a trick. Good with her hands."

Karen nods with a small smile, carrying another machine over to another table. "Alright then. I'll start with the characteristics of human blood…"

"What's all this?" Blade asks, coming out of his workshop with something in his hand. It looks like paper, or maybe really old parchment.

Karen turns to him with a start as she takes the last box from Papa before he climbs down and closes the truck up. "I took a trip to the hospital last night to borrow some equipment."

He hands Papa the parchment after inspecting the setup, where I've started plugging in some machines. "I took this from the archives last night."

An inhale, and I laugh at the cough. "Smells like a vampire wiped his ass with this."

"It's from the Book of Erebus," Blade informs him, and I swear I can almost _hear_ him smirking.

Papa hums in thought. "That explains it then."

I look at them in thought. "Isn't that the vampire version of the Bible? The story of Dracula?"

Karen stops in shock. "Why am I not surprised he's real?"

"Because you thought vampires weren't real a couple days ago too," Blade answers cheekily, but in that even growl he always hides behind. He returns his focus to Papa as I crawl under a table. "What does it say?"

"It's written in blood. Something about the Spirits of the Twelve, and some vampire god called La Magra… I can't make out the rest of what this shit says," Papa answers steadily.

Blade passes something over as I crawl back out, some kind of cartridge. "Maybe this'll help."

"Maybe," Papa mutters, sticking it into a slot on the computer before turning to us. "I need to look at the pawn shops. Need more silver and old knives."

"I'm making a run downtown for more serum now," Blade informs us.

"Wait," Karen calls as she grabs something from another box. "I need a sample of your blood."

He shakes his head in the negative. "It can wait."

As he goes to head to his car, Papa stops him with a hand on his chest. "No kid, this is important. It'll only take a few minutes." He limps away to the storage area where we keep all the cash and valuable stuff we take from the vampires for these kinds of trips.

Blade takes off his jacket as I move to open the program on the computer, listening to Papa's harsh coughing from across the warehouse. "Is he sick?" she asks softly.

"Cancer," Blade answers softly, and I fight not to cringe at the words being spoken so easily.

"You must care about him a lot, you and Kelly," she murmurs soothingly, and it makes me feel better.

Blade looks up at Karen for a long moment. "He's all we got."

She removes the needle easily, the vial full of blood. "My mom always used to say, 'a cold heart's a dead heart.' Maybe that's what happened for you."

* * *

So, because so many people have been demanding updates for this story more than any others, and because I decided to spend today watching Blade 1 a dozen times before moving to Blade 2, I decided to crank this out. You got lucky that this update is as long as it is, it almost got left at under 1000 words. I'm already working on the next chapter, it'll be the transition into Blade 2, or at least some flashes in the end of Blade 1 and the time between to the start of Blade 2.

Have a good night, hope you enjoyed, and please leave a comment!


	4. Chapter 4

So, this happened very fast. I screwed up the timeline and who was taken on purpose, I just felt like it because I feel like Scud would be even more of an asshole about a kid than an old man, you know? So, hope you enjoy!

Kelly POV

"So, we know that vampire blood is different, it's biconvex and the hemoglobin isn't right. What does this EDTA do?" I ask, holding up the bottle of dark blue liquid and pulling out my sketchbook.

She takes it and pulls out a pipette, having already set up a sample of vampire blood in a dish. "That's what I want to find out," she answers with a little smirk. "We use it to treat blood clots."

"A fancy and expensive version of rat poison then," I comment, just to poke fun at her.

She gives me a playful glare. "This isn't too hard to get ahold of, it runs out all the time and we know somebody slips it out." She takes a small sample and drops it into the dish, causing it to bubble and explode, making us both jump away.

I laugh a little at the idea that just came to mind. "Blow up the vampires, and disguise it as serum," I whisper, writing it in my book and drawing out an injector that Papa found to use for Blade's serum in a hurry. I grab a few plastic test tubes and the injectors before looking for one of the spare stake holsters. They're a perfect fit, so I take it all back to the computer station to sew caps to the bottom and start filling the tubes and attaching them to the injectors.

"Blade should like those," Karen muses, and I look up in time to see her pleased expression as she turns to one of her cold boxes.

"Do you have any ideas on how to treat your vampirism?" I ask as I draw out the tool with its notes on a fresh sheet, comments on the reaction with a little before and after doodle of the test we ran. It's been a while since Karen started comparing blood samples of herself, me, Blade, and Quinn, and we've been working in silence.

I look up after coloring in the blue on my paper to find her nodding. "It's the hemoglobin part, it's in their DNA at this point. So, I use gene therapy in a retrovirus to rewrite my DNA."

I frown at her. "How do you get to that idea?"

"It's the same thing we use to treat sickle cell anemia. It's a part of their DNA, just like the vampires. So, if I use this, it should have the same effect, getting rid of what could be considered a virus that turns me into a vampire." She wipes a spot on her bicep and injects herself with a solution, making me wince.

"Is this even safe, and could the same be done for Blade?" I ask hopefully.

She shakes her head. "I have no idea if this is even safe or might work for me, but I don't have much choice. This might help Blade, but it'll take time for me to get it adjusted for him. He was born with it, like sickle cell patients, and it took a long time for this therapy to be developed. I have the start of it that should work, at least to cure his thirst."

I look at the screen as I pull out the sheet and tuck it into the back of the holster, leaving it on top of the computer in case we both forget about it when the guys come back shortly. "I don't think we've got that much time," I reply softly, watching as the figure in the center on a pedestal expands in a burst of blood that takes over the screen before the program ends. A cold laugh stops my heart. "Karen, we need to run," I whisper, jumping up and pulling a shotgun down from the top of the light over her and grabbing her hand as she pulls out a gun of her own.

I lead her towards the back, shooting at someone upstairs on a catwalk before someone shoots out my knee from behind, making me cry out in agony as I collapse. "Kelly!" Karen shouts, bending to help me up as Mercury grabs her, holding her arms painfully behind her back.

"Nice place you got here kid, too us a while to find it!" Frost snarls, lodging his foot in my ribs to kick me onto my back.

I gasp in pain, holding a hand over my ribs, but I give him my best glare. I don't let my eyes tear up in pain or fear. "Go ahead and get it over with you fucker," I snarl up at him, edging away from him.

He gives me a horrible grin as he kicks me again, this time in my stomach and completely winding me. "I'm not gonna bite you kid," he promises, turning away to pat Quinn's shoulder. "Do your thing man."

"Kelly?!" Blade shouts, and I moan in agony, the act itself hurting every fiber of my being. Everything hurts, everything burns and all I see is a bloody white sheet over my head, one I can feel covering my body in the chair he uses to take his serum.

"Kid, over here!" Papa shouts, pulling off the sheet and letting the light nearly blind my swollen eyes.

"Papa," I whimper. "Frost… Quinn… Mercury… they got… took Karen," I gasp, not even fighting the tears anymore as Blade wipes away some of the blood from my neck, too close to one of the bites on my collarbone. "Bit me."

Blade's gloved hand wraps around mine, squeezing ever so gently. "Shh, save your strength. We can treat it."

I close my eyes. "No… been hours… hurts." I look up at Papa then Blade. "Made… a tool… on the computer… EDTA kills… they don't know. Looks like a… serum. Make it stop… I don't wanna turn… please," I beg Blade.

"Give me the gun," Papa orders Blade softly, and he obeys, not looking anywhere but in my eyes. Papa takes my other hand and squeezes gently. "Close your eyes, Kelly… just like you're going to sleep."

"Love you," I whisper, closing my eyes and unable to keep myself from crying.

"Love you too Kelly," Blade whispers, kissing my forehead. "Goodnight."

I hold in a scream as they electrocute and beat me, blinded by my own blood. "Talk little bitch, and we might stop," the same man as before orders coldly.

"Liar," I laugh hoarsely. Why didn't I die? Why did I turn? Papa shot me, I know he did!

I scream as one punch shatters my ribs and dents my entire left side, coughing up blood as blood gurgles in my throat. Black spots dance in front of me as they untie me from the chair. "Put her in the tank," someone orders someone else blandly as they walk away.

Blade POV

Rush, I'll have to remember him. Good shield, but a weak link in this little operation. They shouldn't have trusted him with anything, the little coward, but it led me back to my little Kelly. How did she turn though? How did they find her and make sure she lived? I saw Whistler kill her myself, a bullet in the head and no pulse. They forced me to hunt her all over the world, always moving her and never staying somewhere long, for just over twenty-six months. She should've just turned fourteen, and now she's still twelve years old.

The tank glows red from internal lights in the blood and water solution they've trapped her in. "Kelly," I whisper hoarsely, feeling the pain of losing her all over again as I spot the fangs in her mouth, open in a silent scream. "What have they done to you?"

I find the locks and release them, opening the tank and opening the door, flooding the room and leaving her small body hanging from tubes in her arms and back and the plastic restraints around her neck and wrists. I take the time to remove the needles, one at a time, and remove the sensors sticking to her naked, emaciated body. The feeding and breathing tubes from her throat, and what I hope is a waste tube from below.

I lower her to the ground after cutting away the restraints, and her big blue eyes open ever so slightly as I cradle her in one arm, my free hand instinctively going to the silver stakes strapped to my leg. "Blade…" she whispers with a faint smile. "Make them stop," she whimpers as her eyes fall shut once more. "Make them…" she trails off, asleep in what she thinks is the safety of my arms.

I'm at war with myself, my experiences and instincts demanding that I kill her, that I finish the job. But I can't make myself kill this little girl, the one I raised with Whistler and care about too much. My head tells me to end her suffering, but my heart tells me Karen's cure will bring her back to me. I saved her from the fire nine years ago, and I can save her from vampirism now.

I shrug off my coat and wrap it around her, closing the front gently and lifting her in my arms. "Let's go home Kelly," I whisper to her, tucking her head under my chin as I rise and walk out, not a single vampire in my path, just the ashes of the ones who tried to stop me.


End file.
